An Iraqi TV presenter threw herself off her second floor balcony to escape five masked gunmen trying to kidnap her and her husband, she said from her hospital bed yesterday.

Nagham Abdul-Zahra is recovering from multiple fractures. She said the gunmen barged into her apartment in Risala, south-east Baghdad, on Tuesday morning and tied both her and her husband up.

"For a moment I thought it would be better for me to die in my own way. When [a gunman] turned his head to check if my husband was still tied up tightly, I jumped off the balcony." She screamed for help and the gunmen fled.